Larry Fahn
Environmental Advocate, Attorney, and Activist.
Northern California environmental leader Larry Fahn has had a multi-dimensional career- - successful trial lawyer, four term National Director of Sierra Club including two terms as National President, and twelve years as Executive Director of the innovative non-profit group As You Sow, which has been a leader in corporate accountability, shareholder advocacy, and toxics enforcement.
As Sierra Club President, Larry spoke in more than 30 states and territories from Puerto Rico to above the Arctic Circle with the Gwich’in People in Alaska. He appeared on local and national news media such as NPR, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, advocating for wilderness and wildlife protection, environmental justice and renewable energy expansion. In the Spring of 2004, Larry addressed over one million people, mostly women, at the March for Women’s Lives on the National Mall in Washington D.C. He served as a Sierra Club delegate to the UN Climate Talks in Copenhagen, Cancun, and Durban. In 2013 he spearheaded an initiative at Sierra Club to strengthen its wildlife policy by banning the use of body gripping-traps for fun or profit.
During his years with As You Sow, he pioneered shareholder initiatives to publicize the presence of mercury in certain fish species, lead in consumer products and portable classrooms, and phthalates in children's toys. Among other accomplishments As You Sow spearheaded the campaign that resulted in Home Depot removing old-growth redwood from its wood products.
A political activist and strategic campaigner, Larry has worked on scores of ballot measures and citizens’ initiatives in California on a wide array of environmental and wildlife issues including Prop 197 to ban mountain lion hunting and Prop 4 which prohibited the use of specific poisons and body-gripping traps for recreational or commercial trapping. He helped lobby successfully to enact California legislation ending the sale of shark fins and the barbaric practice of hunting bears with packs of dogs.
Larry received dual undergraduate degrees in Environmental Science and Rhetoric from UC Davis and a JD from University of California Hastings College of Law in San Francisco.
He resides in Mill Valley, California with his dog Suzie.
It was a proud moment for the Sierra Club, as President Larry Fahn rallied more than 1.2 million supporters at the March for Women's Lives on the National Mall in Washington DC.
Larry fired up the crowd of over 50 thousand souls at Miami's Bayfront Stadium, joining labor, religious, and political leaders in opposition to the FTAA and GW Bush administration "free" trade policy.
With Director Michael Dorsey at the Sierra Club Booth at the UN Climate Talks in Durban South Africa 2011.
Larry attends the UN Climate Talks in Copenhagen as a Sierra Club Delegate. He met up with a friendly polar bear on the Conference floor. On the big screen in the background President Obama is accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. He arrived in Copenhagen the next day.